Solar cells have attracted much attention in recent years as an energy source with a low environmental impact. As a result, research and development in the field of solar cells has been active. The most important issue has been to improve the conversion efficiency of solar cells. Therefore, a considerable amount of research and development has been directed at solar cells and manufacturing methods for solar cells with improved conversion efficiency.
For example, a solar cell with high conversion efficiency has been proposed in Patent Document 1. This solar cell is a so-called back contact solar cell in which the p-type region and n-type region are both formed on the back surface. A back contact solar cell does not require electrodes on the light-receiving surface to collect carriers. As a result, the light-receiving efficiency can be improved with back contact solar cells, and thus improved conversion efficiency may be realized.
Patent Document 1 describes the configuration of a solar cell module in which a plurality of back contact solar cells has been electrically connected by means of wiring material. In this solar cell module, the solar cells are electrically connected by the wiring material only on the back surface. As a result, wiring material with a greater width can be used. This can suppress any voltage drop caused by the use of wiring to connect a plurality of solar cells.